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Syndicate ZMagazine Issue 136
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SYNDICATE ZMAGAZINE ISSUE #136 DECEMBER 18, 1988
*** Special Edition ***
Part 2 1988 IN REVIEW
Editors Desk
by Ron Kovacs
This is Part 2 of a series of reprints on News and Atari related material
between January thru December 1988. Originally scheduled were two parts.
Due to the massive amount of material collected, we will expand this
series to three parts. Next week the final installment.
A week till Christmas. Get that Xmas shopping done!
Next week's edition will be released on December 23, 1988.
1988 Continues.........
COMDEX continued
ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., COPYRIGHT 1988 REPRINTED BY PERMISSION.
ATARI SEES ITS UNIT NEAR BREAKEVEN
According to Reuters, though losses from Federated Group continue to hurt
earnings, Atari said it expects Federated to just about break even in the
second and third quarters and a modest profit in the fourth quarter. Atari
also said it is reducing costs and improving product mix, margins and
sales.
Without Federated, Atari said it would have earned $15.3 million, or 26
cents per share, on sales of $97.7 million in 1988. Atari's net income
was $5.67 million, or 10 cents per share, on net sales of $169.23 million
for the first quarter, down from $15.26 million, or 26 cents, on sales of
$65.13 million a year earlier. Last year's results included a gain of
$5.89 million.
Additionally, the company said the Atari computer and video game segment
generated -significant- increases in sales volume. The continuing shortage
of Dynamic Random Access Memory, however, has had a negative impact on
sales, but Atari expects the DRAM shortage and related high cost will
begin to ease later this year.
REPORT FROM ATLANTA, PART IV
Closing day of Spring 1988 Comdex
by Andrew Reese START Editor
(Atlanta, Georgia, May 13, 1988) The numbers held up well as the Spring,
1988 version of Comdex came to a close. Floor traffic stayed high and the
Atlanta airport resembled Manhattan at rush hour. There was general
agreement that the hottest item shown at Comdex was a new Dell PS/2 clone
and the hottest giveaway was a yellow nylon bag with a logo of -WingZ,-
a new Mac II integrated spreadsheet package. The WingZ pavilion with
their flashy Leonard Nimoy-narrated laser, sound and light show was just
across the way from the Atari booth and the lines stayed long for the
entire show.
MIDI software publishers were well represented in the Atari booth itself
with Hybrid Arts, Dr. T, Passport, Sonus and Midisoft all showing their
wares. Announced today by Frank Foster of Hybrid Arts is their new ADAP
II. To be shown in June at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), ADAP II,
which stands for Analog-to-Digital Audio Processor, is the first Random
Access Editing System for Digital Audio Tapes (DAT). It will be available
this summer and carries a $3,000 price tag for the hardware and software
package. It requires a minimum of 1 meg of RAM in an ST (or a Mega, of
course) and a Hard Drive. The hardware consists of the sampler and a
coprocessor box. Just like the present ADAP, it allows 80 seconds of
stereo to be stored in a digital form on a 20 Meg hard drive. A truly
professional package and the first allowing DAT editing...and only on the
ST!
A.L. Hospers Jr. of Dr. T's was demonstrating their Multi-Program
Environment (MPE) system for MIDI. It's a shell for Dr. T's line of MIDI
software, but it's more than just a shell, because it allows for
interactive data sharing among the programs. Version 1.6 of the Keyboard
Controlled Sequencer (KCS) is shipping now at $249 with MPE and new edit
features. You can play around with 55,000 notes in a one meg ST and still
have a sequencer, MPE and three patch editors in RAM at the same time, but
if you want to add in Dr. T's impressive scoring software, better have
more than 2 megs of RAM. All in all, a very powerful and impressive
package.
Passport's Master Tracks Pro Version 2.1 was unveiled at Comdex. With
enhancements over their already powerful Version 2.0, Passport remains
in the hunt for ST MIDI leadership. Master Tracks uses a unique interface
for editing and allows the musician to lay down up to 64 tracks. Watch
for new developments from Passport in the very near future.
Superscore, the 32-track sequencer and scoring program from Sonus, made
its first Comdex appearance. This is a powerful program designed to let
the musician polish his/her work and then print out a finished score on
an Epson-compatible printer. It's priced at $249 and shipping now.
Midisoft Corp. showed their Advanced Edition of Midisoft Studio, due for
June release. Midisoft has added new event editing features,
programmable tempo changes and support for the emerging standard MIDI
file format, while still retaining the clarity for which the Standard
Edition has become known. Only $149.
An editorial aside here: your editor doesn't come from a MIDI background.
In fact, many who know me would say that I don't even come from a musical
background. But be that as it may, seeing these five fine packages side-
by-side impressed me with three things. First, they each use a
distinctive approach to the tasks, so that whichever interface you prefer
and whatever your needs, one of these packages will fill the bill. Second,
I was impressed by the level of activity in this segment of the ST market;
the ST has forged into the overall lead in the MIDI industry in no small
measure due to the efforts of these and other inventive ST publishers.
Finally, I was struck by the incredible power these packages give the
musician or even non-musician. I think that even I could knock out
something listenable with one of these -- and that's no small
accomplishment. Cheers for these guys who have made a name for the ST.
There were a number of new printers at the show. The trend continues to
be more power for less money as process for 24-pin printers drop below
the $500 level. But the most spectacular printer at the show had to be
the new Tektronix 4693D, a full-color wax printer that produced thick,
but gorgeous pictures. Unfortunately, the price was $8,495...and
Tektronix has produced drivers only for the IBM, Mac and Amiga so far.
I'm sure that an ST driver could be produced without too much trouble, if
the ST market would support it. We'll just have to see what happens as
Atari increases its push into the business markets.
Well, that's about it from Atlanta. There were more booths and more
products than one person could possibly see in four days, so I'm sure that
I missed a few. But my feet will vouch for what I hope was a valiant
effort! It was a success as far as lining up some good writers for the
pages of START and Antic, however. Watch for the likes of George Miller
(formerly of the now defunct Compute's ST magazine), Denis Labreque (one
of Passport's musical geniuses) and Kenneth George (wizard of the ST
Accelerator) to grace our pages in the months to come. And oh, did we
find some great topics to cover! Like...well, we better just keep things
under wraps for now.
SUMMER CES REPORT
ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., COPYRIGHT 1988 REPRINTED BY PERMISSION.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN...
Report from the Summer Consumer Electronics Show
by Andrew Reese START Editor
(Chicago, Ill, June 4, 1988) Chicago in June can be beautiful, but getting
to the Summer Consumer Electronics Show (CES) here can be anything but...
You don't need to hear a litany of travel woes, but suffice it to say that
the crowning blow was a collision at the cabstand at O'Hare International
Airport between a cab and a rent-a-car bus! But your faithful reporter
made it to the show for this first report for you.
Summer CES is a monster of a show -- there are some 1400 exhibitors in
730,000 net square feet of display space.
Over 100,000 attendees will march the aisles this year seeing games,
audio, video (even adult video), telephones of every type and description,
fax machines and almost anything else that might sell between now and
Christmas. And Atari is here...
Yes, Atari is here at CES, but it's different from Comdex, the Computer
Dealers Exposition in April. Here, the Entertainment Electronics Division
(video games) holds sway and the computers take a back seat --at least
this year. No new 16-bit computer products were shown and the 8-bit
products were all games for the 2600, 7800 and XE game systems. In fact,
only three ST's were here in the Atari display area and all were playing
MIDI -- well, they weren't actually in the area, more like grafted onto
the back of Atari's black game temple. But Atari's games were here and
in profusion.
Another notable impression from Atari -- the Electronic Entertainment
Division, at least, is willing to spend money and lots of it to promote
their game systems and software. Mike Katz, president of the division,
announced a $10 million advertising campaign at a press conference held
just before CES. This campaign will include TV ads to run for the rest
of the year, including ones featuring such sports stars as Washington
Redskins quarterback Doug Williams. And in the trade dailies here at the
show, Atari bought lots of ad space. They're serious about selling games,
folks -- they want to double the sales of their games systems this year
for the third year in a row. I can't wait for them to get just as serious
about selling computers in the U.S.!
Of course, Atari's direct game competitors are here as well. Nintendo
bought 20,000 square feet of display space. Yep, that's not a glitch:
20,000 square feet. Their area was filled with third-party developers
showing dozens of new games. But the chip shortage has hit even Nintendo
and they have had to scale down their optimistic projections from 40-
million units (carts) to 30-million. Sega is showing a combination of
arcade stand-alone games and their home game system, now available with
3D glasses. Sega's display area is not as big in area as Nintendo's and
not as well positioned as Atari's, which is just at the foot of the main
escalator into the hall.
And now to the software. This is a game show for the most part and all
of the majors were here and some surprises. The only significant serious
business product I saw was LDW Power, a new high-speed, high-capacity,
GEM-based, 1-2-3-compatible spreadsheet from long-time Atari faithful,
Logical Design Works. This package features built-in graphing, high-
speed re-calculation, efficient use of memory and comes with a 232-page
manual and lots of little features of the kind that make the difference
between a product you use grudgingly and one you turn to with a smile.
Available now for the eminently reasonable price of $150.
Activision was here -- or should I say Mediagenics, the new name for the
umbrella company that gathers together such names as Activision, Gamestar
and Rainbird (formerly Firebird) under one corporate logo. You'll still
see the individual names, but the company is Mediagenics. Their big
promotion this year -- at least overall -- is a new Pete Rose baseball
game -- but not for the Atari, sorry. But Rainbird is a different story
entirely.
Rainbird is hitting the streets in the next few months with a great line-
up of hot games. First is Carrier Command, the long-awaited 3D solid
graphics flight and vehicle simulator. It is available now for the ST at
a price of $44.95 and is not copy-protected. I played this gem and it's
hot, a great futuristic combination of strategy, tactics and arcade
action.
Next up for Rainbird will be Starglider II, a solid 3D version of the
great ST game. Due out in July at a price of $44.95, this version adds
lots of features that would have been thought impossible a few years ago.
The screen refresh rate is nothing short of spectacular and the variety
of weapons and inter-stellar travel broaden the appeal from the original,
which was a landmark game in its day. And speaking of the original, it's
being re-released at a new lower price of $24.95. Oh, you won't believe
it, but the ST and Amiga versions of Starglider II come on the same disk,
it's bootable by either!!!!!
And Rainbird will release a whole series of new ST games over the next
few months. They are really going to support the ST with a broad range of
entertainment software, much of it priced at the very reasonable price of
$24.95. Thanks for the vote of confidence in the viability of the ST
market!
Lots and lots of arcade classics are being translated to the ST. Capcom,
a new name to the Atari market is bringing Bionic Commando, Side Arms,
Street Fighter and 1943 to the ST this summer. The first three are arcade
-style hit, kick, shoot and kill games with animated figures doing your
dirty work. The last is the top-view aerial game set at Midway Island
during WWII. They look like pretty darned good ports and should do well
with Atarians hungry for more ACTION!
On a calmer (??????) note, Sierra On-Line showed some dynamite new games
due out in the next few months. If you liked Leisure Suit Larry in the
Land of the Lounge Lizards, well, he's back and -Looking for Love (in
Several Wrong Places).- A funny, funny adult game and great-looking
follow-up to my wife's favorite game. Due out toward the end of the
summer.
And for all you King's Quest fans, KQ IV is on its way with MIDI-output
music!!! Sierra and Roland are working together to develop an MT-board
for IBM computers that will allow them to play the original stereo score
by William Goldstein directly. The ST version will follow, but because
of the ST's built-in MIDI ports, that wil be the avenue used by the games
designers. The game itself is called -The Perils of Rosella- and takes
you -- Rosella -- on a perilous voyage to save your ailing father's life.
There's an introductory cartoon that sets the stage and it runs ten
minutes! It's a b-i-g game and the graphics are getting better and
better with each generation of Sierra games.
Watch your back, Sonny Bonds! Jesse Bains, the Death Angel, has escaped
and is out for revenge in -Police Quest II -- The Vengeance- from Sierra
On-Line. Looks real good and due out (hopefully) before the fall.
You want action? You want video arcade games on your ST. Well, in a
surprise announcement, Taito ( pronounced -Tie-Toe-) is releasing eight
arcade ports over the next few months. Due out in July at a $39.95
retail price are Alcon and Bubble Bobble, while Arkanoid will accompany
them at $34.95. Then in the fall will come Gladiator, Operation Wolf (a
dynamite-- and gory -- first- person soldiering game), Qix, Rastan and
Renegade, all at $39.95. Save up your quarters, gamers!
JUNE: ATARI NEWS UPDATE
ATARI PLANS MAJOR PUSH IN VIDEO GAMES
Chicago, June 6, 1988--Atari Corp. will introduce 45 new video game
titles, said Michael Katz, president of Atari's Entertainment Electronics
Division, at the Consumer Electronics Show, according to the Reuter News
Service. Katz said that Atari will continue its successful licensing
program by signing licensing agreements with various computer game
companies for successful games from other formats. According to Katz,
1988 industry sales are projected at $1.9 billion, up from $1.1 billion
last year.
ST NEEDS TO GET TOUGH ON BUSINESS
T.R. Reid of the Washington Post calls The Atari ST a -powerful, easy-to-
use, bargain-priced computer with dazzling graphics and formidable sound
capabilities,- but he raises some questions about the computer's ability
as a serious business tool. WordPerfect, Reid said, is an excellent
business application for the ST, -but beyond word processing, the Atari
is not really a match in the business environment for MS-DOS or Macintosh
machines.-
Reid is quick to point out that -it's not that the computer itself is
incapable- -- just that the software companies that produce major league
packages for MS-DOS and Mac aren't taking advantage of the power in the ST
(with the exception of WordPerfect). On the other hand, he discusses such
Atari-specific programs as the SideKick-like Partner ST from Timeworks,
which puts a calculator, Rolodex, appointment calendar and other tools
onto your ST desktop. He also cites ST ports (such as The Software
Toolworks' Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing) that are better than their MS-DOS
counterparts.
Avant Garde's MS-DOS emulator, PC-Ditto, comes under fire in Reid's
article. -Even compared with the performance of a rickety old IBM-PC,- he
says, -running MS-DOS stuff on the ST is a sensation akin to riding a
tricycle in the Indianapolis 500.- On the other hand, he calls Data
Pacific's Magic Sac, which lets you run Macintosh software on the ST, a
-somewhat more successful- effort.
Reid feels that desktop publishing should be a natural for the ST -- the
features required for desktop publishing happen to be the ST's strengths:
-lots of memory, sharp graphics, a versatile laser printer.- Reid likes
the fact that the Atari laser printer has no built-in fonts or page-
description software -- making the printer more versatile than many
-smart- printers, and holding the price down as well.
NEWS FROM CANADA
There are at least four or five major magazines that cover the french
computer market, which is, as you may now, VERY dynamic.
At least one is at least dedicated to the ST. This -ST magazine- has on
its cover a line saying: -Standard Atari and compatibles-. Hey! What
do you mean -compatibles-?
It means compatibles, like an IBM compatible. Yes there is now at least
one St compatible computer, called -Athena ST-. It features most of the
same components as the ST, plus three analog/digital programmable
converters, a noise generator and a fully programmable keyboard.
Those two computers share the same motherboard, but the 68000 has been
remove from it, to be placed on an auxilliary board. It support rom TOS
and the OS9 operating system, this one succesfully tested in a 8 computer
network. All the softwares known are supposed to work pretty fine on it.
The main advantage of this machine is that it allows you to produce
yourself expansion cards (up to three) to be installed inside the Athena
St.
This machine has been designed to fit the need of developpers and teachers,
wich seek particular needs. The machine costs about 2500$ and every
expansion card is about 350$.
The magazine indicates that a full test will be done for the June issue.
Another great thing that we get from Europe is software, months sooner
that you guys get. Desktop publisher, by Timeworks is available in
french. Superbase Professional too, etc..
Some tips now about what is going in France:
-the city of Lyon (1,100,000+ habitants) has all its circulations lights
hooked on a Mega St4
-their has been a big fight last year between Atari, IBM and Macintosh. It
was concerning the new equipement of the daily newspaper Liberation.
Guess who won? Atari! And they provided a new word-processor, Le
Redacteur (The writer), wich is TRULY the fastest on around, including
several analysis tools absolutly not found in any machine!
-Not only the PC1 and PC2 clones are available now but the new AT
compatibles should on the shelves now. Since those are all produced in
Germany, you understand why we (yes here also) do not get these.
-Also very popular are the Minitel emulators and servers.
-You can count on MAJOR softwares for physicians, dentist, school
administration, accounting.
-When you look at an ad in a magazine, you see a pretty big difference
with here. Most of them are dedicated to the business world, showing a
big gap between their approach and ours.
-you should see their 6 pages professional brochure!!!
Well that is about it for now! I'll try to get you some more (frustrating)
news regularly.
Martin Fournier CIS: 73637,3532 GENIE: M.FOURNIER
ZMAG CONFIDENTIAL
by Ron Kovacs
June 1988
News around the 8bit community... Jerry Horanoff is said to be working or
going to be working for ICD. Carina II will not become part of the ICD
inventory. Should be interesting what plans they have for Jerry there...
As reported last week, Micron Tele and Atari have settled the law suit
out of court. We are still on the pursuit of the details that either
will not release to the public.
What ever happened to Keith Ledbetter?? Sources tell us that he was
fired from ICD! True or false? We have been told that Keith says it
was a difference of opinion and others say he was canned.
Check out the most recent issue of Atari Explorer Magazine and you will
find Atari selling it's hardware and software via mail order. Not too
bad, but when you consider the price of a 130XE for $149.00, the
acceptance just doesn't seem to be there. You can call other mail-order
houses and find a better deal!
ATARI 8-BIT NEWS AND COMMENT
by John Nagy [Re-Edited version]
June 1988
HARD TO BELIEVE, but true: Spinnaker's NEWSROOM program for the ATARI
8-bit, so long asked for and awaited, WON'T work using a real 850 ATARI
printer interface! It WILL work using almost anything else... and the
company has assured us that they will try to find a solution -as soon as
they can get an 850 from somewhere to test it-. Yikes. Buyers can get a
refund if they can't wait. Other reasons to consider other newpaper-
layout programs include NEWSROOM's inability to import graphics or text
from any other source.
Congratulations to RON KOVACS who has produced ZMAGAZINE, a weekly
electronic ATARI newsletter for BBS distribution for TWO YEARS now. Often
the content of ZMAG has bristled the hair on ATARI and other corporate
groups, but the consistancy and professionalism Ron has upheld (at his own
non-profit expense!) has paid off. CompuServe, at one time at serious
odds with Ron over the inclusion of information about other telecom
service vendors, has finally even made a special DOWNLOAD LIBRARY just for
ZMAG. The same has now happened on DELPHI, and GENIE even has a special
MESSAGE/SIG area in tht ATARI Roundtable for Ron and his fine product.
ST-Report (now edited by others but under Ron's guidence) joined the ranks
with the original ZMAG (which now focuses on 8-bit news), and year #3
looks bright. Keep it up, Ron!
Speaking of GENIE, where ATARI is BIG STUFF, our own COMPUTER SHOPPER has
its own SIG there now. Move to SHOPPER to look around. I hope we can
make arrangements to post any ATARI public-domain programs discussed here
in my columns available in the SHOPPER SIG, even if they are duplicated in
the ATARI SIG. This would make them more accessable and easier to find
for our readers. Maybe post them for a couple months and then clear them
out? JEFF BRENNER (APPLYING THE ATARI) may be also interested in posting
some of his items there. Stay tuned...
PUBLIC DOMAIN RELEASES
I can't begin to tell you about ALL the goodies that are newly available
for our 8-bit ATARI's, but several are particularly exciting right now.
ALFCRUNCH - Not a way to smash furry aliens, this is finally a BETTER
file compactor than ARC (ARCHIVE). For about a year, ARC (programmed for
the 8-bit ATARI by Ralph Walden) has been the protocol of choice for
-making little ones out of big ones-, because it would:
1) (Fairly) reliably take multiple files of your choice and make them all
into one file for later extraction, with filenames as in the original.
2) Save as much as 50% in total file size over the originals.
3) Use the same format as the IBM and ST ARCHIVE, allowing interchange
between machines.
The reduced size and recovery of the original filenames is very important
to users of MODEMS to tranfer files, and also has application for backing
up your important files in a minimum of disk space. The DOWN side of ARC
has been occasional -CRC CHECKSUM- errors making the output files NOT
match the input, a buggy user interface on the 8-bit ARC and UN-ARC
programs that can cause lots of lost time and effort, and the
SSSSLLLLLOOOOOOWWWWW performance of ARC on our 8-bit ATARI.
ALFCRUNCH, by ALFRED of the PROGRAMMER'S AID BBS (416) 465-4182, provides
a remarkable alternative to ARC. I don't know how it works... but it
WORKS GREAT! Distributed on most of the telecom services and BBS's by
now, get it quick. Alfred, whoever he is, doesn't even call this work
-SHAREWARE- or ask for donations... although few have been more
deserving.
When I first tested ALFCRUNCH to compact a list of files, I was CERTAIN
that it had errored out or was somehow -faking it-, since it was done in
30 seconds! The same list later took almost four minutes to ARC. It was
even faster UN-ALFING (?) the compacted file ...only about 20 seconds!
DE-ARCING its mate took over 3 minutes. And the bottom line: ARC saved
26% compared to the total of the original file sizes, while ALFCRUNCH
saved 45%! YIKES! ALFCRUNCH is actually FASTER than the ARC used on an
IBM or ST! (How long before -ALFRED- makes a version for the -other
machines-?)
I could NOT coax ALFCRUNCH into making any errors of its own... and the
documentation that comes with it is VERY thorough. It will pass parameters
on the SPARTADOS command line, or run in a full prompt mode on ANY DOS,
even with BASIC enabled. Amazing.
The output file from ALFCRUNCH (version 1.2 and higher) can also be
-viewed- with any of the many ARC-VIEW programs floating around on the
BBS circuit, allowing the file contents and retored sizes to be examined
without processing the file to a disk. Although the main reason for the
popularity of VIEWERS was that ARC took so LONG to run, ALFCRUNCH users
will still appreciate the ability to peek into their stored files.
SO, ALFCRUNCH solves ALL of the problems of ARC except the compatiability
with other type computers. As a result, I can only see TWO cases that
would make you choose to use ANY other compaction method: 1) When you KNOW
your file must be later read by machines OTHER than your 8-bit ATARI,
continue to use ARC; 2) When you must transfer a BOOT DISK or a DOS, use
DISKCOM. (DISKCOM by Robert Puff, now in version 3.2 or higher, is VERY
friendly, fast, and reliable, but does nothing to reduce the overall size
of the files. What it excells at is making a file which can later be
restored to be IDENTICAL (byte for byte, sector for sector) to the original
disk. -SCRUNCH- was once a popular format for this same purpose, but
Robert's rapid-fire improvements to DISKCOM, plus its ability to make
double- and -enhanced-density- (ICK!) disks have made it the clear program
of choice.)
SIGNMAKER 1.3 - Jeff Colehour impressed us with SIGNMAKER, reviewed breifly
in an earlier column. Version 1.3 goe further to debug and simplify the
use of this shareware program. Basically an alternative to PRINTSHOP,
SIGNMAKER allows the use of any two PRINTSHOP format icons and any
combination of any three -normal- ATARI fonts in any of four sizes, all on
the same page. Inverse and -control graphic characters- can also be used
in the sign. Text can be imported from normal word processor files, and
can be automatically centered. The biggest change in the new version is
the VIEW SIGN feature. Although it must first save the sign data to a disk
(and it takes a WHOLE DISK!), this lets you examine the final product
before printing, as well as saving it for later use. If you save it to
RAMDISK, the process is very fast, so viewing need not be a painfully
long experience on an extended memory computer.
Although SIGNMAKER can't touch PRINTSHOP for ease of use or polish, it
offers some power to make signs that even PRINTSHOP can't do, like making
full page printouts of graphics from ATASCII BBS cartoons. Check this one
out.
PS UTILITIES 1.0 - Rich Spencer has put several useful features into one
package, written in ACTION!. It accomplishes the hard-to-live-without
functions of RENAMING, COPYING, and DELETING PRINTSHOP format ICONS. It
also allows conversion of MICROPAINTER (Koala/Touch Tablet) format files
into ICONS (and back!). Although these features are available (one at a
time) via the commercial PRINTSHOP COMPANION plus various other PD
programs, this is a nice package for serious PRINTSHOP users. The good
documentation ends with some very useful information about the innards of
a PRINTSHOP disk, and asks for input for future versions.
POSDEMO - Hold on to your seat for an 800+ sector download of XENIA
RESEARCH's POINT OF SALE demo. Get it on GENIE or other telecom services.
Although it is a demo of a commercial product, this demo is worth its
weight in RAM chips if you want to show off your 8-bit system. It
requires that you DISKCOM the file onto a DOUBLE DENSITY disk, and when
it runs, it shows many functions of a store inventory, sales, receipt,
ordering, and saleperson reporting system. Barcodes are printed and read,
documents and reports stream out of the printer, the display shows finely
designed -SYNFILE- looking screens for input and output. This system is
expected to sell for well under $200 INCLUDING the Barcode reader (!!)
and can NETWORK several sales locations for interdependant operation. It
should be available for sale by the time you read this. Best Electronics
of San Jose CA and Butlers Computers in Federal Way WA will have supplies
of POS NET. Yes, I'm VERY impressed. This large, detailed, self-running
demo will LIVE on-screen at any future computer shows, showing what the
8-bit ATARI can do when not gobbling ghosts!
SPC/ZMAG NEWSWIRE: JULY 1988
(SUNNYVALE, CA.) Atari in a turmoil over the revelation of D/S drives
shipped in 520STFM units to FEDERATED STORES.
(VEGAS - COMDEX) Atari plans to revive all the enthusiastic support it
once enjoyed by what they plan to do and show here in NOVEMBER.
(NEW YORK, NY) IBM has reportedly purchased huge amounts of scarce
chips to supply itself and render competition a severe blow.
(NATIONAL, USA) ATARI Dealers are reportedly up in arms over the
alleged preferential treatment Atari has shown to Federated this year
over 1040, 520stfmd/S Drives, Mega delivery times, and service in general.
(WALL STREET) COMPILED 07-08-88 [Fegers and Wise]
Reprint permission granted
Stock Sales High Low Close Net Chg.
Dome Petrol 9,172,000 1 5-32 1 3-32 15-32 unch
Texas Air 1,790,700 15 5/8 14 3/8 14 5/8 off 1/8
Wang Lab B 1,319,600 10 3/4 10 1/4 10 3/8 off 1/4
Amdahl Corp 962,600 53 7/8 50 1/8 50 1/8 off 2 7/8
Echo Bay Mn 797,600 21 1/4 20 1/2 21 up 1/2
NY Times 769,300 27 1/8 26 26 3/8 unch
ATARI CORP *694,400* 9 7 7/8 8 1/2 up 3/8
Est Air 694,300 16 1/2 16 1/8 16 1/2 up 3/8
Viacom 657,700 25 3/4 25 3/8 25 3/4 up 3/8
Lorimar Tel 632,600 13 7/8 13 1/8 13 3/8 off 1/4
Stock Sales High Low Close Net Chg.
Apple Computer (AAPL) $195,227,000 47 1/2 45 45 1/4 off 1 1/4
LIN Broadcsting (LINB) 167,195,000 64 54 58 1/8 off 5 7/8
Apollo Computer (APCI) 157,968,000 15 7/8 10 1/2 10 7/8 off 3 7/8
Sun Microsystm (SUNW) 150,205,000 40 3/4 38 38 1/2 off 1/2
Intel Corp (INTC) 149,274,000 36 1/4 34 3/4 35 off 1 1/4
MCI Commun (MCIC) 117,825,000 15 1/4 14 1/4 14 7/8 up 3/8
Microsoft Cp (MSFT) 117,673,000 70 1/2 67 68 1/2 up 1/2
Miniscribe Cp (MINY) 69,499,000 13 3/4 12 13 1/8 up 1
Novell Inc (NOVL) 65,468,000 28 3/4 26 26 1/2 off 2
MICRON TECH *(DRAM)* 62,976,000 23 1/2 21 3/8 22 7/8 up 1 1/4
ANTIC ONLINE REPORT
ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., COPYRIGHT 1988 REPRINTED BY PERMISSION.
ISGUR REPORTS ON ATARI
BY GREGG PEARLMAN, ANTIC ASSISTANT EDITOR
The following information about Atari Corp. comes from May, 1988 report
from Lee Isgur, first vice president of PaineWebber Inc., advisor to the
Antic Publishing board of directors and author of the Isgur Portfolio:
(#) Atari will introduce a 68030-based computer in the fall, as well as a
laptop ST with a built-in hard drive.
(#) In January, 1989, Atari will introduce -what will probably be the
first 68000-based game machine.- It should retail at around $199.
(#) Atari will double the $10 million it spent advertising video games
last year.
(#) Management is cautious about video games and expects the current
excitement to wane, so Atari plans to undersell the market
continually. Atari also will increase its emphasis on software,
which is seen as less risky than hardware.
(#) Because of the DRAM shortage, Atari is currently producing a few
thousand PC clones a month, but later this year, the company will
begin making the PC-5, an 80286 machine.
(#) In addition to the 50 transputers currently in the hands of
developers, Atari will have sent 200 more in June. The transputer
should be available to the public before the end of the year.
(#) Atari Corp.'s first quarter 1987 results confirm that the company has
$68.5 million cash on hand and should earn well over $1 per share in
1988. The Federated retail division, which Atari didn't own during
the first quarter of 1987, lost 16 cents a share.
(#) Under Atari Corp., Federated's employees have fallen from 3,000 to
1,900 as six stores have been closed and several others have been
reduced.
(#) Demand for Atari products, mostly computers, exceeds supply by at
least 50%, and that if DRAM shortages ease in the second half of
1988, so will comparative gross margin declines.
(#) Video game sales this year should be twice last year's $80 million,
with the Atari 7800 and XE Game System accounting for more than half
of these sales.
(#) Over 80% of Atari's computer sales, around $400 million to $500
million this year, are outside the United States. Management hopes
for 50% of computer sales to come from the United States in 1990.
(#) Atari will probably open a factory in the United States before the
end of the year.
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT: JULY 1988
TO ATARI USER GROUPS AND ALL ATARI ENTHUSIASTS:
I was disappointed to read the negative letters and articles regarding
comments made by Neil Harris at the West Coast Computer Faire. We at
Atari feel that our computers are the clear technological leaders in
their classes. The XE/XL line is superior to the Commodore 64, and the
ST series beats any '286 or 8088 MSDOS machine; it also beats the touted
Macintosh (68000) machines, and even surpasses the Amiga in all areas
except for internal sound.
The educational, productivity, and entertainment software available for
the Atari machines makes for an excellent combination which yields many
uses. My family knows, as we use an 800XL, an XE Game Machine, and a
1040STf. Neil was only saying that the future will bring EVEN MORE
POWERFUL computers which will be easier to use, and I am sure he is right.
This statement is not meant to belittle today's models or users.
While I am communicating with you, let me clear up a few things and also
ask for your help.
The DRAM shortage is still with us and it is inhibiting our distribution
in the U.S. We hope this will get better in the 4th quarter of '88. In
the meantime, we will CONTINUE TO SUPPORT ATARI COMPUTER presence in the
U.S. We will advertise this fall to keep our presence in the U.S.
I ask all of you is two things: first, please do not pirate software.
Talk your friends out of it also. The software community is suffering
and complaining, please police pirating so Atari software companies can
thrive. The other favor I ask of you is to be the evangelists of the
Atari world. Tell your friends, associates, teachers, etc., how great the
XE/XL and ST are.
LET'S WORK TOGETHER TO MAKE THE ATARI MACHINES A STANDARD IN THE U.S.
--- Sam Tramiel, President, Atari Corporation
JULY NEWS AND RUMORS UPDATE
>From the Dateline BBS 718-648-0947
by Curtis Vendel
News from the rumors mill.
Well, things have on an upswing for the 8bit computer systems lately. The
big news is about the 2 new operating enviorments that are scheduled for
release this July and September.
The first is called Diamond(tm) and is a graphics operating system. Some
users are familar with a piece of software called RAOS: the Rat Actuacted
Operating System which was nothing more than a fancy graphics DOS menu,
not much more. Diamond on the other hand is an operating -System- or
-Enviorment- that will control windows, dialog boxes, icons, fonts, etc..
In a conversation with Alan Reeve, the author of Diamond, he mentioned
that the packages would costs $29.95, I say packages because along with
Diamond will be a developers kit for designing software which will run in
the Diamond enviorment, also to be released along with Diamond will be a
painting program and a wordprocessor rumored to have multiple fonts. No
release dates have been set, but also scheduled are several programming
languages and a desktop publishing program. Alan Reeve is also the author
of News Station, one of the first page designing programs, perhaps the
Diamond Publish program will be a souped up version of his News Station.
And in the other corner of the ring is STjr by Merrill Ward & Associates.
In a brief interview with Mr. Shelly Merrill I was able to find out that
the STjr GOE is a 'ROM' based program. This will allow 400/800 users to
be able to utilize this software, Diamond unfortunetly uses the extra 16k
of the XL/XE machines. I asked Mr. Merrill what his company would do in
the event that the GOE cart. has a bug in the software or they decide to
update their package and he commented that STjr carts. would be under an
-exchange- agreement. However I'm sure there would be a small charge for
an update exchange though. The GOE cart will have a built in Paint
Program and Wordprocessor. Support disks for additional fonts would be
sold later. Also in the works is a terminal program and here is a key
note for XEP80 users, Merrill Ward Associates is working closely with
Atari and will be producing GOE based XEP80 column support, GOE will be
using ADOS and is rumored to also have possible SpartaDOS support (this
is yet unconfirmed).
Both companies have DEMO disks, the Diamond demo is not yet available and
is expected around mid July, the STjr GOE is available right now for $5.00
DIAMOND(tm)
Alan Reeve
312-393-2317
Packages are $29.95 and COD orders are being taken now, according to Mr.
Reeve packaging is being done and shipping is expected by July 15
STjr (GOE)
Merrill Ward & Associates
619-328-8728
Palm Springs, CA 92262
The final version in ROM wont be available until September, a disk based
version is available for $59.95 and a DEMO disk is available for the first
500 users for $5.00
Speaking is operating enviorments, there was a quick surge of talk about
MTOS (Mult-Tasking Operating System) unfortunetly MTOS only works
effectively on a 130XE with at least 256K and will only allow 16K programs
to run, this restriction might be a big reason why no one has heard much
from MTOS or its author for sometime now. With hope, perhaps a new
version that could support 32K or more per program would have the MTOS
enviorment quite a bit. Best wishes and success to MTOS
Sales of the XE-GS are steady and high, sales are rumored at well over
1,000,000 units and Atari is promising harder hitting advertising for its
new 8bit system. More and more 'new' games have been appearing, they
include Battlezone, GATO, Barnyard Blaster, Crossbow, Commando, Airball
and here's one of interest to Dungeons and Dragons players: Dark Chamber.
Another bright ray of hope at Atari is Nolan Bushnell. For those new to
Atari's or unfamilar with the name, Nolan Bushnell created and founder of
Atari in 1972 with his first video game called Pong, Atari started as a
$500.00 endeavor and Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications for $24
million.
Well Mr. Bushnell has been commisioned by Atari to be a Software consultant
to help design 76 new games for the 2600, 7800, and XE systems. Now you
say 2600??? They're still selling??? As a matter of fact, approxiametly
1,000,000 a year and there are approxiamelty 8 new titles out and 2 flashy
commercials which can be seen in the afternoons showing off what that 4K
bank switching VCS can do. The 7800 is doing quite well also, Epxy just
released World Games and Street Games, Atari has several new titles out
for it and more are on the way.
Little unknown printer, for those not aware of it, with zero fanfare,
announcment or reviews Atari released the XDM121 printer several months
ago. It is actually a superb printer, it puts the 1027 to shame (though
that is not a hard task in the least) the XDM121 produces high quality
typerwritter style printing at a slow 12 characters per second (CPS), its
$159-$189 price tag is a bit heafty but is worth it for the quality print.
An added note for those users who endeavor to dig up any little secrets
about Atari, here's a tid-bit: did you know that if you dig up an old
1983 Atari 2600 games catalog and look at the Soon to come section of new
Hardware items, there is one item in particular: The Voice Commander, the
casing is the exact same case now being used by the 2600jr model Atari
Corp has been selling for the past couple of years. I know its not much
but some users find it useful.
ATARI SCUTTLEBITS
by Bob Kelly
AUGUST 1988
Atari Market Happenings .......
I. Annual Report:
In mid-May, as an Atari stock owner, I received the 1987 annual report.
Some investors will tell you that a firm's annual report is largely a
propaganda exercise. This simply is not correct. The reports are
required to present general financial data in compliance with Federal
statutes that are of value and interest. The table below, from the 1987
annual report, lists the major stockholders and salaries of those running
the corporation.
Common Stock Ownership* and the Five Highest Paid Executive Officers
Amount
Name (millions Percent Dollar (1)
of Owner of shares) of Stock Compensation
J. Tramiel 25.3 43.9% ---
Warner Comm, Inc. 14.2 24.6% N.A.
Sam Tramiel 1.1 1.9% 211,798
Leonard I. Schreiber .220 ---
Samuel Chin .193 --- 158,207
Gregory A. Pratt .177 --- 157,632
Michael Rosenberg .050 ---
Taro Tokai ? --- 198,720
Steven Kawalick ? --- 109,618
* As of April 11, 1988
(1) Compensation includes salaries, bonuses and employer contribution to
life insurance policies.
There are some unfamiliar names presented in the table. Mr. Chin is a
Vice President and served as General Manager of Atari's Taiwan
manufacturing facility from 1985 to 1987. Mr. Schreiber is, in essence,
Jack Tramiel's personal counsel while also a member of the Board of
Directors. Mr. Pratt is the Vice-President for Finance/Chief Financial
Officer for Atari. Mr. Rosenberg is a member of the Board of Directors.
Mr. Tokai is the Vice-President and General Manager for Atari, Japan. Mr.
Kawalick is Atari's Treasurer. Except for Mr. Kawalick and Mr. Rosenberg,
all senior executive officers at Atari worked for Commodore Ltd., at one
time or another.
A few of the more interesting facts/claims presented in the 1987 annual
report are:
<*> Federated stores' operating losses are expected to continue for the
first three quarters of 1988. By year end, Federated is projected to
achieve break-even by Atari.
Comment: The fourth quarter holiday sales period is the critical variable
in this projection. In essence, Atari's overall growth in the price of
its stock by the end of 1988 will largely depend upon the speed of
Federated's recovery.
<*> Research & Development outlays, as a percent of sales, declined from
6% in 1986 to 5% in 1987.
<*> In West Germany, Atari computers represent 10% of the total market for
computers selling over 1000 Deutsch Marks (roughly equivalent to U.S.
$600).
<*> In Switzerland, the Atari ST's share is about 30% of the educational
market.
<*> In the United Kingdom, Atari sales accounted for some 40% of the 16
bit computer market.
<*> In the U.S., over 1000 schools use ST's for math, reading, and
language skills.
In 1987, Atari's revenue (net sales) from the electronic products division
(computers) was $362 million and for retail operations (Federated Stores)
$131 million yielding a total of $493 million. The operating income was
$72 million for the electronic products division while Federated stores
experienced an operating loss of $6.4 million. Interestingly enough, of
the total $493 million in revenues, $267 was generated in North America
with Europe's share amounting to roughly $204 million. Europe's revenues
were all computer related while Federated sales of $131 million must be
deducted from the U.S. and Canada net sale figure to be somewhat
comparable. Thus, as best can be determined, European computer sales were
roughly $50 to $65 million more than those of North America.
Finally, earnings per share for the electronic products division alone
rose from 53 cents in 1986 to 80 cents/share in 1987, an increase of 51%.
Considering this performance, one would expect Atari's current stock price
to be on the rise. However, it remains below the average of $10 7/8 for
the week prior to the Oct. 19, 1987 crash (as of early June the price per/
share ranged between $7 & $7 1/2).
II. Glasnost and Atari:
A U.S. firm will be the first to publish a personal computer magazine in
the U.S.S.R. The magazine to be printed in the Russian language will be
under the editorial control of the publisher of PC World - IDG.
The first issue of the magazine is scheduled for publication this month
and will cost the equivalent of U.S. $3.20 per copy. Currently,
the number of PC users in Russia is small and little information about
computer developments is transmitted to the general population. About a
third of the magazine's content will focus upon developments in Russia
with the remainder covering the U.S. and European computer markets. The
first issue is expected to be a run of 50,000 copies. The Soviet staff
of the magazine will consist of seven writers and editors.
What does this have to do with Atari? Atari will advertise in the
magazine. The other companies planning to advertise are: Ashton-Tate,
MicroSoft, and Siemens. The first issue will be about 150 pages with 20%
of the available space devoted to the advertisers. Ad space is not cheap.
This looks like a major long-range marketing effort by Atari.
The ultimate goal of this initiative, according to an unidentified Atari
spokesperson, is for every computer classroom and factory in the U.S.S.R.
to have an ST on the desk and a picture of Jack on the walls next to Lenin
and Gorbachev. Za Zaslugi, Nagradit' Tramiela Dzhaka (Ordenom Lenina).
III. Europe, Midi, and Atari:
The Financial Times of London recently reported that the European recording
industry is experiencing financial difficulties. Recording studios in
Hamburg, Paris, and London are being forced out of business. The problem
stems from the introduction to the music world of the personal computer
and the midi interface.
During the 1970's and up to the mid-1980's, recording artists did most of
their rehearsing in record company studios. The ratio of rehearsal time
to actual recording time was on the order of 6:1 (usually measured in
months). However, in the past few years, an increasing number of
recording artists are conducting their rehearsals at home with the aid of
a personal computer, midi interface, and music design software. Some
studios faced with the loss of the rental income from rehearsals have
attempted to lure artist back by purchasing the latest, most sophisticated
computerized recording technology. This has stretched the finances of
many companies. Lately, the major European studios have been reducing
their prices in an attempt to draw back former customers. The smaller
companies, unable to purchase advanced recording equipment owing to
capital constraints and the inability to significantly reduced prices have
but one option available - close their doors.
By the way, the home computer which dominates the European recording
market is ... the Atari 1040. Now, you know the rest of the story and
why Atari assigns such a high priority to attending the Midi Expos in
Anaheim and New York in September and December 1988.
IV. Video Games:
A quote from a recent article in Advertising Age:
-The demand is greater than supply, and the demand has stayed much
stronger than expected . . . Last year, the majority of U.S. sales came
from video games.-
The speaker was Michael Katz, President of the Atari entertainment
electronics division. What he is really saying is the U.S. public's
perception that Atari is a video game company is CORRECT.
Total video game sales in the U.S. in 1987 amounted to roughly $1.1
billion and Atari has about 16% of the market based on dollar sales
(market share is 35% for the number of game units sold). Nintendo has
about 70% of the market based on dollar sales and between 55 and 60% when
calculated on unit sales. The best -guestimate- is that XE game related
sales accounted for roughly $140 to 170 million of Atari's total revenue
in 1987.
Atari has hired a new advertising firm to help market its video games.
The XE game advertising account is valued at roughly $10 million. Note,
the Atari computer division is without an advertising agency in the United
States. I leave you with this fact to ponder and its implications for the
priority assigned by Atari to Mega and ST sales in the U.S. for the
remainder of 1988. Enjoy the rest of your summer and minimize the time
on that computer till fall.
That's all for now folks.........
SPECIAL SUPRA MODEM OFFER!!!
CompuServe's Atari Forums have made arrangements with Paramount Products
Inc. to offer the members of our forums the chance to upgrade your system
to 2400 baud service at a very special price. For a limited time,
CompuServe subscribers may purchase the SUPRA CORP. 2400 baud Hayes-
compatible modem for the very **LOW** price. These are brand new, not
reconditioned units, with the full SUPRA CORP. warranty.
The SUPRA MODEM uses the Hayes Smartmodem 'AT' command set and operates at
300-1200-2400 baud. It's an outboard unit (not an internal plug-in card)
allowing ease of transfer to other computers. Connection is thru the
standard RS-232 interface. (Just plug it into the back of your ATARI ST).
To take advantage of this special offer, call CompuServes Atari 8/16 Forum
and read the file in the News and Reviews sections.
If you've been accessing CompuServe at 1200 baud, this is a great way to
lower your total online bill since CIS does *NOT* charge a premium for
2400 baud access. (You can get the same amount of information or download
the same amount of programs in approximately 1/2 the time as 1200 baud
users!) This modem will PAY FOR ITSELF in just a few sessions.
This is a worthwhile deal to jump on! So call CIS today!!
MID-MICHIGAN UPDATE
SEPTEMBER 1988
We use this space to publically ask the staff of MAM to fill us in on what
the current 6 month plans. As editorialized here a few weeks ago, we
stated that there appeared to be less and less user group news and
articles. With the support of 8-9 local users groups, it seems to us at
ZMAG that more interest should be given to local reporting then the
current style used. How about it?
ZMAG NEWS ROUND-UP 9/14-9/21
Compiled by the Staff of ZMagazine
PRESS RELEASE 9/15/88
In an article called Atari News and Comment in the September Michigan Atari
Magazine (MAM), editor Bill Rayl again blasted a non-participating local
Michigan Atari users group for policies not in tune to MAM's liking.
MAGIC, the eastern Michigan Atari users group who has stead fastly refused
advances to join the MAM consortium, was sharply condemned for charging
-50 cents to $1 admission- to attend a special meeting hosting Atari execs.
-I was strongly misquoted by Mr. Rayl,- says Sourcerer's Apprentice Editor
Mike Lechkun. -I went out of my way to call Bill Rayl long distance to
share and report this bit of local Atari news. I was shocked to see it
turned into a negative slam against us (MAGIC).-
-I told his wife (and MAM co-editor) Pattie that MAGIC was asking for a
donation to help defray costs of starting up another Atari fest effort [as
well as to pay for the increase in space needed for the meeting]. It
seems to me,- commented Mike, -that MAM is allowed to rake in money for
it's own ventures, but others trying to serve the Atari community are, in
their words, 'tasteless'.-
Mike concluded that he'd -be more than happy to make a donation in the
Rayls' name if they couldn't cough up a couple of bucks!- It was MAM,
over a year ago, who slammed then-non-participating club MACE when they
proposed charging non-members to attend the monthly meetings. MACE was
(and is) losing money rapidly by providing services to non-members who
were sponging off the group. Because of the article, MACE was embarrassed
into changing their newly adopted policy.
The members of MAGIC have always felt that a user group's newsletter helps
to define and add personality and individuality to the club. The
newsletter is the club's identity to the outside world. It is a shame
that MAM feels that their viewpoint is the only valid one in Michigan, and
that any other club's views are -considered extremely bad taste.-
Quote from MAM, 9/88
Atari News and Comment
-In a move that can only be considered extremely bad taste, MAGIC is
planning to charge 50 cents or $1 admission to attend this meeting [with
Atari's execs]! The meeting takes place on their normally scheduled
meeting night, and MAGIC's meetings are generally open to all. But, in
this case, MAGIC proposes to charge admission from the very people they
are going to need assistance from if another show will occur. MAGIC can't
pull off an AtariFest on their own, but if any other clubs want to get
involved at this first meeting, they'll have to pay to do so? Hopefully,
MAGIC will change the tune before October...-
ATARI KILLS DETROIT VISIT
ATARI CORP.'s proposed visit to Detroit user group MAGIC has been
cancelled. Sam Tramiel said that such a visit would -excite group
members-, but with no product to deliver and because we are right before
Comdex, there's really nothing that could be said. ATARI has promised
full support for a Detroit AtariFest, which the MAGIC group is still
considering. Sig Hartmann commented that the November Comdex show would
be -an opener to a revitalized U.S. market presence-, and indicated a
proposed resurgance after the first of the year. But as to not discourage
those who would attend a large scale meeting from afar, Atari will not
make a local apperance until the show.
** NEWS BULLETIN **
Attention all persons that have a program being called -Master Cruncher-
or any alterations of that. It seems that a group of pirates have edited
out the Copyright notice and have claimed the program as there own. This
Utility is not Public Domain nor a Pirate utility, it is a Commercial
program that was going to be sold in The Federal Republic of Germany.
There were plans to market it in the USA, but due to the massive spreading
of the utility, there is no hope of making any kind of profit nor will
there be any other such utilities produced due to these problems, it is
not cost effective to try and track down who did this terrible thing, so
you can just thank who ever the persons involed for screwing up the future
of such useful utilities you might have had. Please notify all sysops or
board operators that this file should be deleted from file sections and
not posted again.
I was really surprised to hear that it was posted on 2 major commercial
networks, I would have thought they would have questioned this utility
because of no documentation or origin of source. I would have thought the
sysops would be a little more responsible to there amiga comunity and
check things that are questionable out first.
A final note, the version that seems to have made it's way all over the
United States is still a beta version and has a Serious! bug in it, I do
not accept any responsiblity for any damage caused by the faulty program.
-it is not my fault everyone pirated it- I strongly suggest you uncrunch
everything crunched with it or things might begin to happen you wish
didn't. You have been warned of the problem. Please spread this file as
fast as my program was spread to warn people against the possible
destruction of all there data.
Bit Soft Programing (BSP)
Hans Mayor
Post Fach 1123
8623 Staffelstein
West Germany
NEIL HARRIS RESIGNS
As reported in Issue #54 of ST-Report last week, Neil Harris has resigned
from Atari Corp.
DATA-PACIFIC UPDATE
Msg#: 4622 *ATARI_ST* 09/02/88 17:16:00
From: MICHAEL SCHUSTER
To: ALL
Subj: DAVID SMALL/DP
Subject: New Data Pacific Newsletter
Data Pacific has released a new newsletter in the last few days that
deserves a warning. It's full of distortions, half-truths, is misleading,
and contains some flat false information. It's going to confuse a lot
of people, so I'm trying to spread the word.
For instance, the newsletter contains columns from people who no longer
work at dP (most of dP's staff quit in March-April, including me). It
talks of a new tech person, -Mike-, who does not exist and who always has
been a pseduonym for Joel when taking tech calls.
More subtly, the newsletter implies that dP is having me look into a 128K
ROM version of the Magic Sac. This is false; I have nothing to do with
Data Pacific (except for one contract job -- version 6.1 of Magic Sac, in
exchange for a LaserWriter). dP (Joel) agreed long ago to stop using my
name to try to sell their products; they've broken their promise.
The newsletter says Dan Moore (dlm@druhi here) -worked overtime- to
produce Mover 1.7. The truth is, Dan did Mover 1.7 for a flat $150 fee in
July. He was paid by check after dropping off the disk; his bank later
told him that Joel *had stopped the check*. In short, dP is selling a
version of Mover 1.7 that they flat stole from Dan.
If you appreciate any of the contributions Dan has made to the ST world,
such as the Twister disk format, Meg-a-minute backup, Protect desk
accessory, and others, you could return him the favor by refusing to buy
dP's disk until they remove Mover 1.7 from it, and letting them know why.
Dan's had a rough month; he broke his hand recently, and is in a cast to
his elbow (any get well cards sent via email would be greatly appreciated),
by the way.
In my opinion, Data Pacific is attempting to present an image that things
are as they were during the good days, while selling off as much stock as
possible, with this newsletter -- then they're getting out. How else to
explain them putting Apple's own Switcher and FONT/DA Mover on their
-public domain- disk -- other than dP isn't planning on being around long
enough for Apple to catch them (and rightfully so; Hertzfeld worked hard
on Switcher).
I'd like it made clear I have nothing to do with Data Pacific anymore; I
answer dP related questions out of courtesy to my old customers, and
nothing more. The same is true for Dan Moore. The tactics Data Pacific is
stooping to, in my opinion, to milk a little more money from the Magic Sac
before folding up are shoddy in the extreme, and I think it's a shame my
name is still associated with this company. Hence, this note.
As for me, I have a new company, Gadgets By Small, Inc, and we're planning
on releasing our first product (the Spectre 128) on Sept. 16, at the Atari
Glendale Atarifest show. Since dP has broken it's word (again) to give me
access to their customer mailing list, which I built, I can't put out the
word about the Spectre 128 upgrade to the Magic Sac except by the networks.
For the record, and to answer a previous questions, I left Data Pacific
in March of this year, when it became clear that (a) Joel was not going
to honor our agreements, and (b) when I found out the FCC number being
put on the Translator units had been forged, and Joel had no plans to ever
FCC certify the unit. Believe me, I want no part of trying to slip one
past the FCC. (Every Translator unit shipped bears this same false number.)
I wouldn't be party to this; neither would Dan, when he heard. (Thanks
to our friends from Supra for checking the number at the FCC BBS and
telling us what had happened!)
I plan to carry on support of dP buyers with my new company, here and on
other networks, as a courtesy to the people who shelled out money for the
Magic Sac, but via a new company (Gadgets), as well as -push the envelope-
further on Mac emulation with the Spectre 128 product. I don't want to
advertise here on the net publicly; please drop me email privately if
you're interested (hplabs!well!dsmall or dsmall@well); I don't think the
local community would appreciate a few hundred -Yes, please send me info-
notes here in comp.sys.atari.st.
Thanks for reading a rather long note; I plead that I'm used to getting
paid by wordcount <grin>.
-- Thanks, Dave Small
Gadgets by Small, Inc. --- TBBS v2.0
* Origin: the Night Shift BBS - Staten Isl, NY - (718) 816-7792 (107/109)
GLENDALE ATARI FAIRE
Well, it's now Sunday, 9/18/88, and the Glendale Atari Faire v.3 is over.
Here's a report, for those who are interested.
The Glendale Faire may have been a local event, but there were a few
things that net.people would be interested in:
* SPECTRE 128.
It's _here_. NOW. David Small brought 200 copies out to Glendale, and were
they selling! The price is around $180 -- Make your checks out to -Gadgets
By Small-. David (a very funny and fun guy) was accompanied by his wife
Sandy, his infant son, and a few friends. And yes, I did see Hypercard
running on an ST with my own eyes. David also gave a humorous talk on the
development of the Spectre, and denies any plans to do an Amiga emulator
for the ST or a Mac emulator on the Amiga.
* 8-bit GEM.
You want to revitalize your 8-bit Atari? Then take your picks:
Obviously, the biggest expectation in the 8-bit community is GOE (Graphics
Operating Enviroment). Yes, it was at the Faire, and yes, Total Control
Systems is selling them. They're not _shipping_ until October, but you can
order it now and get a discount. It looks like a TOTAL clone of the ST's
GEM (You can even hook up an ST mouse and run GOE through it), it ran
solid for the entire show. The author says it will run 95 percent of all
8-bit programs. It comes on a ICD -piggyback- cartridge, and takes up
only 8K of RAM. There's supposed to be a library of GOE routes, so other
developers can easily make GOE calls and write GOE products. Looks really
terr
ific.
>From the makers of _Celebrity Cookbook_ comes DIAMOND OS (aka ST jr,
depending on what time of the day you were at the booth). For $30, it's a
graphics interface that offers drop-down menus, windows, and other good
stuff (it doesn't _look_ like GEM, however). Reeve Software is promising
to release DIAMOND Paint, Write, Publish, and Programmer's Kits, for $30
each as well. It looks like it's disk based (I can't be sure), but that's
okay -- it can support up to 16 megabytes(!) of RAM.
* Genlock for the ST was demonstrated, in an open-board -final- version.
JRI says they're only waiting for the FCC, and then they'll ship. It's
very impressive -- An ST Cyberpain animation was being superimposed over
a music video, and the Genlocked result was being shown on both a standard
TV _and_ the SC1224 (how do they do that?). Ready to tackle the Amiga?
* Neocept, makers of FONTZ! and WORDUP (a great word processor -- an
unsolicited endorsement) were present. Nothing major was presented,
although the new version of WordUp, with numerous minor bug fixes, is
expected to ship in two weeks. Registered owners will recieve a card in
the mail about the upgrade procedure. Neocept also says they'll gladly
take user input for improvements for their products -- Just drop them a
line.
* Animation buffs like myself will be happy to hear that FILM DIRECTOR is
finally being released. Epyx has gotten the rights to this two-year-old
cel-based animation program, and it has been SUBSTANTIALLY improved (16
screens for cels, runs in 512K, better user interface, etc.). It should be
out in October, and the $50 price tag gets you both FILM DIRECTOR and ART
DIRECTOR -- A bargain! Maurice Molyneaux (a fun guy to chat with, a real
professional artist) had a lot of input into the final user interface, and
it shows. I can't wait.
* Megamax was also showing their soon-to-be-released Laser DB. It's a
source level debugger for Laser C, and offers lots of features -- Source-
code trace viewing, register value displays, breakpoints, multiple
windows. If you liked Laser C, you'll want this.
* Codehead software was also demonstrating G+PLUS (I won't say anything
about this, everybody and his cousin knows about it by now) and a new
product called MULTIDESK. MDesk allows you to have 16 accessories of your
choice in ONE menu slot. Even better, you can clear out and load NEW
accessories at any time! You can also change the name MultiDesk registers
itself on the menu, so you can have six copies of Multidesk -- each one
with 16 different accessories -- for a mind-numbing total of 96 accessories
avaliable simultaneously. Future products promised include FatBack (-A
unique hard disk backup system-) and CodeHead Utilities (A collection of
programs and accessories).
* ICD was present and selling their cartridge-based SPARTADOS X. My friend
bought a copy ($80, on a piggyback cartridge), and it appears to work just
fine. Improvements include 1000+ files per directory, faster disk access,
and built-in ARC/ALFCRUNCH support. The manual is still a preliminary
copy, however, but ICD promises to send out the finals to registered
owners when they become available. They also showed their FA-ST hard
drive, available for 8-bit or ST hookup.
* Regent Software was selling copies of REGENT WORD II for the jaw-
ropping price of $15 each -- Not $15 off, $15 EACH.
* Broderbund, surprisingly, was present. They were showing their new
_Typhoon Thompson_ game for the ST (known on the Apple as _Airheart_), as
well as _Star Wars_ (imported from Europe; Broderbund is distributing). A
version of _Karateka_ for the ST is promised, and -maybe- _Print Shop_,
but little else. (The dealer was frank in why there was less Atari support
-- -Our biggest market is the gs-). No word on 8-bit support.
* And now, the word from Atari. Conspicuous by their absence, none of the
Tramiel family showed up. Instead, we were treated to Sig Hartman, who
promised us that -[1989] will be a critical point for Atari in the US
market-. He also apologized for the lack of more ST's in America (-We had
a limited number of Ataris, and we decided to put them in West Germany --
If we didn't, there would have been a hole for the Amiga or the Macintosh
to get in-), and pledged closed attention to the end users, through user
groups and public information services. Sig refused to -officially-
confirm/deny the existence of the Atari Transputer, the 68020/68030
workstation/machines, or anything else -- except by saying -We're working
on 7 or 8 products right now, and I can't say what they are.- He did
promise that 520/1040 owners will be able to get TOS and blitter upgrades,
and that he will personally try to get more companies to produce 8-bit
titles.
In a related vein, Federated promised the increased development of
-compu-centers- in all their stores, and the possibility of offering in-
store servicing for Atari products. They are also supposedly toying with
the idea of carrying hardware accessories (boards, wiring, etc.) in the
centers.
* Pledged to appear -- but never did -- were Data Pacific and Antic.
Dealers who did appear, but didn't produce anything major, included Astra
systems, Michtron, Migraph, and Seymour-Radix. Bill Skurski Enterprises
was present, peddling copies of his -New User's Guide to the Atari ST-
(book and videotape), as well as Best Electronics, Logical Choice for
Computing, Mid-Cities Comp/Soft, and Comsoft.
Special thanks to John King Tarpinian, the local user groups, ACENET, and
everybody else for makign the whole thing possible.
ZMAG NEWSWIRE
SEPTEMBER 1988
26-Sep-88 ATARI ZAPS PIRATES (From combined Wire reports)
Atari corp said it raided several stores in New York City that were
selling imitations of its copyrighted video game consoles, joysticks and
cassettes.
Michael Katz, president of Atari's Entertainment Electronics division,
told Reuters the raids are part of the company's continuing effort to
combat manufacturing and sales of products that imitate its popular video
game product line. He did not know the extent of such sales in the New
York area. -We're hoping that these nine stores were either the only or
the majority (of stores selling the pirated products).-
On September 17 and 19, Atari's representatives seized more than 700
consoles and joysticks that strongly resembled Atari's 2600 line of
videogame products, along with many imitation cassettes, at nine stores
in New York City.
Howard J. Schwartz, of New York law firm Davis and Gilbert, the company's
attorneys, said the defendants have agreed to open their records to Atari,
which will allow the company to pursue the distributors that supplied the
imitations, and to destroy the seized material. He said they have also
agreed to sell genuine Atari products. Atari's videogame consoles are
manufactured in Taiwan.
Earlier this year, Atari raided retailers in Los Angeles that were selling
pirated versions of its videogame products. Katz said the company is
likely to make further confiscations of imitation products based on
information obtained from the records of the New York retailers.
Later, Atari Corp. said it reached a settlement in U.S. District Court
with New York City retailers that were selling counterfeit Atari 2600
personal computers.
On Sept. 16, Atari said it conducted an unannounced raid of six stores
and confiscated more than $100,000 worth of Atari game consoles and
related game equipment.
Under the agreement reached today, the stores will purchase a like number
of new systems from Atari, and become authorized Atari dealers, Atari
said. The copies of the 2600 game consoles, which Atari said were made in
Taiwan, will be destroyed, it said.
Atari Corp expects sales of its video game products to continue to boom
this year, despite intense competition from Nintendo Co. of Japan, the
market leader.
Michael V. Katz, president of Atari's Entertaiment Electronics Division,
told Reuters that the company hopes its video game sales will double this
year, compared with 1987 when they were -about 100 million dollars.-
Katz said he could not comment further on Atari's financial outlook,
although he said video games account for about 25 percent total annual
sales.
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Happy Holidays from PayBax BBS (302) 731-5558 All bauds... All Hours
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Syndicate ZMagazine Copyright (C) Syndicate Publishing Company, 1988
Issue #136
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